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Game Pie

A savory pie filled with game birds, potatoes, and a rich gravy, baked in a crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Game Pie

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the birds

  1. Clean the birds inside and out.

  2. Split the birds in half.

  3. Place the birds in a saucepan with 2 quarts of water.

  4. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  5. Skim off any scum that rises.

  6. Add salt, pepper, parsley, onion, and cloves.

  7. Add the diced salt pork.

  8. Boil until tender, ensuring the birds are covered with water.

Make the gravy

  1. Thicken the broth with 2 tablespoons of browned flour.

  2. Let the broth boil.

  3. Stir in the butter.

  4. Remove from heat.

  5. Let it cool.

Assemble and bake

  1. Prepare the diced potatoes.

  2. Prepare a rich pie crust.

  3. Line a buttered pudding dish with the crust.

  4. Layer the birds and potatoes alternately until full.

  5. Pour the gravy over the layers.

  6. Cover with the top crust.

  7. Cut a slit in the center.

  8. Bake at 400°F (200°C) until golden brown.

  9. Optionally decorate the top with pastry leaves.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Parsley + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Quail + porktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together308 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Small birds
Provide the main meat, which becomes tender through long simmering in water.
Salt pork
Adds fat and savory flavor to the broth that carries into the gravy.
Browned flour
Thickens the broth into a gravy and adds a toasted, nutty flavor.
Butter
Enriches the gravy, adding fat, richness and smooth mouthfeel.
Potatoes
Add starchy bulk between the layers and soak up some of the gravy.
Rich pie crust
Forms the enclosing shell that holds the layers and gravy while baking.

The step that matters

Let the broth boil after adding the browned flour. Flour must be boiled in the liquid so its starch fully swells and thickens the gravy; otherwise it stays thin and may taste raw.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (quail, pepper, parsley, onion, pork, flour, butter):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Garlicfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against quail, pepper, parsley, onion, pork, flour, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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